High-pressure strength of nanocrystalline tantalum carbide (TaC) studied at a non-hydrostatic compression

• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrmhm.2013.04.009
• Publication Date: 2013-04-25T20:16:34Z
• Authors: Hai-hua Chen; Yan Bi; Ho-kwang Mao; Ji-an Xu; Lei Liu; Qiu-min Jing; Zuo Li; Xiang-rong Chen; Qi-ming Wang
• Keywords: 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology

Abstract High-pressure strength and plastic properties of nanocrystalline tantalum carbide (nano-TaC) have been investigated by using synchrotron radiation up to 65.5 GPa. Nano-TaC shows a bulk modulus of K 0 = 433 ± 7 GPa with K ′ 0 fixed at 4.0. It is close to that of diamond and is higher than the results from micron-TaC. In its plastic deformation behavior, nano-TaC starts to yield a plastic deformation at around 20 GPa, and the yield strength of nano-TaC increases with pressures and reaches a value of ~ 22 GPa at the highest pressure in our test. The high-pressure strength of nano-TaC is comparable to that of other superhard metals such as B 6 O, c-BC 2 N and γ -Si 3 N 4 . The first-principle DFT calculations confirm a lower bulk modulus for micron-TaC.